One of Discerning Reader's faithful reviewers, currently an itinerant Toronto-area preacher who goes by the name of Ian Clary, observantly pointed out that both he and I had used the phrase "warts and all" in our respective reviews posted this week. That's enough to make me use it as a post title.

Today we present an exciting lineup of fairly influential books. You may disagree with some of them, but their impact - or that of their authors - on the Christian Church in America (and in one case, in the United Kingdom) is undeniable.

...and they're up.

The stack of books that Discerning Reader's reviewers have read in the past couple of weeks is so eclectic that I suspect anyone will be able to find suitable summer reading amongst them. We have read theology, Christian living, biography, apologetics, and history books both classic and contemporary. To be specific...

To make up for last week's silence, today I am reporting on the last two week's worth of reviews.

If you've done the math in the title of this update, you will already know we are posting five reviews this week. I will also mention a notable external book review of a runaway bestseller, so you'd best keep on reading.

I couldn't come up with a pithy blog title indicating that while we usually post new reviews on Tuesdays, this week we are posting on Wednesday. But I did see some common thematic threads in the reviews we posted this week, which gave rise to a whole new way of titling review announcements. Subject to our Founding Editor, of course...

Although we're not as review-heavy this week as we were last week, we're still tipping the scales at six reviews.

It has finally happened - we've increased the amount of reviews viewable on the splash page because we produced too many to post. And that's with me (Mark Tubbs) sitting out this week!

Even in midst of Together for the Gospel, sick children, and rain in the dining room, Tim Challies managed to produce four reviews. Here they are, in no particular order.

...and we're back. Think of last week's T4G hiatus in baseball terms: a rain delay. Or something like that. This week we're batting 1.000 again with six reviews. Half of the books we reviewed were giveaways at the T4G conference.